National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has prepared a state credit plan for 2003-04 where the total credit requirement for various sectors has been projected at Rs 5124.32 crore. Nabard was involved in the credit planning exercise to provide direction to credit flow in rural areas.
The plan envisaged Rs 983 crore as term loan for agriculture, Rs 1,537 crore for short term agricultural loan, Rs 964 crore for rural industrial sector, Rs 1,039 crore for other priority sectors and Rs 599 crore for non-priority sectors.
For capital formation in agriculture and allied activities, term loan would be avaialable for farm mechanisation to the tune of Rs 266 crore, while the figure for storage and marketyard was pegged at Rs 175 crore, plantation and horticulture at Rs 104 crore, animal husbandry at Rs 73 crore and inland fisheries at Rs 72 crore.
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The updated potential link plan prepared by Nabard for 2003-04 shows credit flow potential of Rs 1,826 crore in West Bengal for the priority sector. Out of this the credit gap for crop loans was Rs 712 crore and agricultural term loan was Rs 471 crore.
Credit gap for non-farm sector was Rs 491 crore while for other priority sectors it was Rs 152 crore. Credit to priority sector in the state was expected at around Rs 2,699 crore of which 1,338 crore would be for the farm sector.
Enhanced investment through credit was largely dependent on development of infrastructure in rural areas. Nabard has projected investment of Rs 600 crore for rural infrastructure through RIDF VIII.
Apart from traditional areas like road, irrigation structures and power, Nabard has decided to include new areas like soil conservation, watershed management, flood protection, drainage, rural marketyard, rural godown, integrated cold chains, fishing jetties etc.
Self help groups have also become the most effective mode of delivering credit to a large number of rural poor who have been considered beyond the reach of formal banking system. During 2002-03 Nabard has set a target of 15,000 SHG to receive credit support from Banks. Nabard has till date setup 11,000 SHGs.